Help with new external hard disk
Hi All,

I had a stop over in Hong Kong from New Zealand back to London. I bought myself the following.

Zynet Polar 2.5" external usb/firewire enclosure for a hard disk (see link)
And also a Fujitsu 80gb 2.5" RPM5200 drive. (see link)

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?s...&view=detailed

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_g...terid=1734761/

The guy in the shop put the drive into the encloser for me. I just got home yesterday and plugged it into my laptop via usb. Windows XP found the drive but it doesn't show up as a drive in the My Computer folder.

Do I need to format the drive? How do I do that?

Also I am now at work and plugged it into my work computer via usb and XP won't detect it at all.

Im not a computer guru like some of you guy but I do know my way around a little.

Thanks if anyone can help.

Hi and welcome to PCHF

I think I know the problem...

XP is having difficulty assigning a drive letter to the new drive so..

1) Right click on "My Computer"
2) Select Manage
3) Click on Disk Management
4) If you see the hard drive listed there : Right click on the drive (the graphical bit that shows used space etc) and select "Change drive letter..."
5) Choose a drive letter like G or H and say ok to all the open boxes. Your drive should be useable now

Let us know how it goes.

Hi JDawg,

Thanks heaps for your help. I am at work and my laptop is at home. I will try it out when I get home.

Do you know why my work computer will not see the drive when I plug it in? The power light goes but XP doesnt see anything. Any Ideas?

Thanks once again.

Hmmmm...no

But make sure that your copy of XP is completely up to date (in terms of the Windows Updates) including Service Packs.